Some would say I was a lost man in a lost world

Key Zero

"I am his Majesty's dog at Kew,
Pray tell me, Sir, whose dog are you?" -- Alexander Pope -- engraved on the collar of a dog given to the king as a present.

Reason is the most potent tool in Man's arsenal. When used with enough diligence, and for a long enough time, there is no facet of the universe beyond the understanding of human minds. Nevertheless, there are limits, especially with regard to the individual. The human brain is not infinite, either in its ability to process information nor in its ability to store, integrate, and reference it. Like Persian carpets, we each contain flaws, gaps, and limitations in knowledge, perception, and reasoning ability. Each of us is the dog of some master or another. Being creatures of self-made soul, we have some choice in the matter though. Since we cannot know everything about all things, we decide in which arenas we are willing to act on limited information and understanding -- where we will allow ourselves to try and fail in the course of our learning, even if our knowledge is imperfect and incomplete or our perception is limited.

Certainly love is one such arena. Even if we presume to understand all of the motivations and drives and how they interact and move us, even if we know ourselves well, there is still the question of the other person. As such, love is often a mine-field of assumptions and misreadings and false starts. It is easy to be a fool, or to be thought a fool by those who observe your behavior when operating in this arena. Nevertheless, my contention is, show me a man who refuses to be a fool for love, and I will show you a man who will be a fool for one or more lesser things, such as money, power, fame, glory, sex, drugs, liquor, prestige, acceptance, anger, pride, or self-destruction.